Libertas Continued

Last week, I stood in the cold with millions of Americans and watched as former President Bush's helicopter lifted away. In those significant moments, it seemed the further he flew, the more real it felt: "President Barack Obama." Yet, in many ways, Bush and Cheney still occupy government. It will take a great deal of time to undo eight years of policies that have blocked medical progress, destroyed ecosystems, allowed financial collapse, and perhaps most importantly, damaged our standing and power throughout the globe. Democrats must be part of the rebirth of Government, but there must also be accountability for those who have abused the Constitution and rejected the legitimate power of Congress during the past eight years. With that in mind, I am very pleased that Chairman John Conyers has again subpoenaed Karl Rove to testify before Congress regarding his role in the firing of U.S. Attorneys by the Bush Administration. Rove's old claims of executive privilege sh

Ian Lamont writes "The Electronic Frontier Foundation and the National Security Archive are praising President Obama's executive orders to make the federal government more open . Yesterday, Obama issued two memos and one executive order instructing government agencies to err on the side of making information public and not to look for reasons to legally withhold it. The moves are expected to make it easier for people to file Freedom of Information Act requests, and should also boost the amount of information that agencies place on their websites. The general counsel for the National Security Archive (an NGO that publishes declassified documents obtained through the Freedom of Information Act) even predicts that agencies will use blogs to share information. Obama's directives reverse a 2001 memo from former US Attorney General John Ashcroft instructing federal agencies to generally withhold information from citizens filing FOIA requests."

Obama Answers Our 'Special Prosecutor' Question on TV Thanks to you, something remarkable happened this weekend: President-elect Barack Obama answered our question asking if he will appoint a Special Prosecutor to "investigate the gravest crimes of the Bush Administration, including torture and warrantless wiretapping." Watch the video . Because of your votes, our question was #1 on Change.gov after 4.7 million votes were cast for 76,000 questions. We received 22,779 votes; the next question (on bank bailout accountability) received 19,271. We shocked the political and media elites who believe ordinary Americans don't care about holding Bush and Cheney accountable for their crimes. Your votes proved them wrong! But winning the vote didn't guarantee an answer; Obama tried to dodge the question by recycling an evasive answer from Joe Biden. Obama's strategy backfired. Bloggers like A ri Melber of The Nation objected. Then MSNBC's Ke ith Olbermann discu